Philadelphia Teen Will Stand Trial For Murder of Overbrook Mother, A Bystander
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An 18-year-old man has been ordered to stand trial for the murder last October of an Overbrook mother of four (see related story), an innocent bystander shot during what authorities say was an on-again, off-again gun battle between two warring neighborhood gangs.
Defendant Daniel Shelley has been ordered held for trial even though two witnesses -- including the alleged target of the shooting -- recanted on the witness stand, denying they had told police that Shelley was the shooter (another related story).
Prosecutor Brendan O'Malley says Hafeezah Nurid-Din was apparently shot accidentally because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
O'Malley says the 31-year-old mother, who ran a daycare, had just returned from the store and was walking into the house with her father and sister on a Saturday evening:
"Two individuals came up on bikes, Mr. Shelley was the shooter. He fired multiple shots at one of the witnesses. He was aiming for the witness and struck the innocent woman who was walking into her house right in the chest, and the bullet went through her heart and killed her."
But the defense says Shelley is innocent, and that any identification -- from witnesses who recanted or anyone else -- is a "blatant misidentification."
